Knapp says running game “made good strides”

Greg Knapp poured a little more gasoline on the fire that is the Raiders’ fan base’s ire Wednesday.

After all, Oakland ranks dead last in the NFL in rushing at 60.8 yards per game – after finishing second in 2010 and seventh last year – and most of the blame has fallen on the new offensive coordinator.

Last week at Denver, the Raiders had 56 yards, with Darren McFadden getting bounced around after gaining 34 on 13 carries. And Knapp, who should probably stay off the internet, said, “I thought we made good strides last week.”

He thought the running game looked more efficient, “we just didn’t have any break out runs, but we did have more consistency,” he said. The new zone-blocking scheme requires the offensive linemen to move together and block a certain area and create cut-back lanes for running backs.

Knapp said the linemen did a better job with their run assignments and with communicating with each other.

“Unfortunately for us, we got into a game where we had to start playing catch up and had to throw the ball more in that last quarter and a half,” Knapp said. “The improvements that we had made in the first two and a half quarters we weren’t able to use as much in the last quarter and a half because we had to start throwing the ball.”

As far as McFadden, who has 201 yards after having 468 through four games last season, Knapp said, “Darren’s doing well. He is running very hard and I have been very pleased with that I have seen so far. So he is doing fine.”